Indian Removal Homework

Indian Removal Homework

1. Although Boudinot knew that there were some Natives in the country that fitted the American stereotype, he was also aware that most Indians were no different from the immigrating Europeans and were innocent victims of oppression. For most Americans during the 1800s, the term ‘Indian’ was “pregnant with ideas most repelling and degrading.” However, Boudinot pointed out that while some Native Americans were the savages that Europeans thought them to be, not all were. This idea could be seen in his Address to Whites when he said “such impressions… although they hold too true when applied to some, do great injustices to many of this race of beings.” He also used religion to prove that Indians were equivalent to Europeans

Although this treaty explicitly stated the Indians’ rights to land, history- and even the Act itself- proved that Americans followed it very loosely, if at all. The Trade and Intercourse Act seemed to dampen the consequences of violating Indian land rights since it included the phrase, “not exceeding,” when referring to the jail- time and fees that any invasive Americans had to pay.

3. Andrew Jackson proposed moving the Indians because he wanted to end the tensions between the Federal and State Governments concerning Natives, to condense the Indian population in a single expanse of land, to open the area between Tennessee and Louisiana to the whites, and to prevent Indian and American conflicts. In the second paragraph of his Message to Congress in1829, Jackson said that the United States should move the Indians because it would put “an end to all possible danger of collisions between the authorities of the General and State Governments on account of the Indians.” He went on to explain that the Removal